Prevalence of neonatal hearing loss in the population treated at the Orinoquia Regional Hospital: Neonatal Auditory screening study

Introduction: Neonatal hearing loss is one of the most frequent congenital sensory defects in pediatrics. The prevalence ranges from 1 per 1000 live births with severe hearing loss and increases to 6 per 1000 when mild, moderate and severe hearing loss are taken into account. Methodology: An observational, descriptive study was carried out, where newborns were included between March 1, 2017 and July 23, 2018 at the Orinoquía Regional Hospital, which underwent hearing tests based on national protocols.The database was registered in Excel version 2013 and analyzed with the statistical program SPSS version 22. Results: 3448 were screened that were born in the study period. 51% were male; 80.3% of the study cohort came from urban areas. 2% were born preterm. 4% of the mothers had a history of abortion. The prevalence of neonatal hearing loss was 3.53% (95% CI 2.92 - 4.15). Conclusions: The prevalence of neonatal hearing loss in newborns in the Orinoquía regional hospital was 3.53%, where some were exposed to risk factors such as hospitalization in an intensive care unit related to problems during delivery, consumption of ototoxic drugs, infections in utero, family history of hearing loss,
prematurity, among others.